the pride we feel when we are dressed for amusement and contemplate
those in workaday garb; and in these sensations of pride he leaned
forward, proud of his good looks, his shirt front, his shirt cuffs,
his glazed shoes; he pleasured in the knowledge that many saw he was
going to elegant company, to amusement. He was full of scorn for the
women loitering, for the clerks hurrying, and especially for the
crowds pressing about the entrances of the theatres.

London opened up upon a little black space of asphalt; crimson clouds
moved over the many windowed walls of the great hotels, the black
monumented square foamed with white water, children played, and the
gold of the inscriptions over the shops caught the eye. London was
tall on the heavens. Regent Street was full of young men as elegant as
himself driving to various pleasures, and Frank wondered what sort of
dinners they would eat, what kind of women they would sit by. Then as
he drove through Mayfair he thought of his own party. He wondered what
the girls would think of him.

Lady Seveley lived in Green Street. When he had rung the bell he
listened impatiently for approaching steps, for he tingled with
presentiment that he would somehow be disappointed, and he dreaded
dinner by himself and his lonely lodgings. Nor was he wholly wrong.
The butler who opened the door seemed surprised at seeing him, and in
reply to his question if Lady Seveley was at home, replied
hesitatingly:

"Her ladyship is at home, but she is not at all well, sir. She is, I
think, in her room lying down, sir."

"Oh, but did she not expect me? I was to have dined here to-night."